product design
Yahoo releases Reputation Design Patterns (Yay!)
Yahoo’s Design Pattern Library is a pretty awesome collection of design patterns - proven solutions for common or well-known problems. The idea is to provide answers to questions people (here: developers) encounter over and over again. Why reinvent the wheel?
Now there’s a whole set of design patterns for a reputation system, as well as some […]
Don’t make your users suffer through error messages
If you use a web service and encounter an error, it’s bad enough as it is. Don’t make your users guests suffer even more by giving them a cryptic error page with technobabble. Most people won’t mind an error if they’re offered a helping hand. Here’s a few nice examples of great error page designs:
istockphoto.com: […]
Negroponte Unveils Second Generation OLPC
Just a few months after shipping the first laptops, the One Laptop Per Child project (OLPC) is getting ready for round two. Chairman Nicholas Negroponte just unveiled the second generation laptop, going by the name XO-2 or XOXO.
So here’s what it’ll look like. (Note the Matrix-like picture language? Ah, good times.)
Needless to say, from […]
I work for teh Internets
During the last couple of days, particularly at next08, I’ve had a few very funny discussions about the nature of our jobs, and how you can’t explain any of our internet-related jobs to our parents or non-web friends. (Yes, there are some of those out there!)
As M.T. pointed out, one way to go is […]
Muji comes to Berlin
This is completely off-topic for this blog, I guess, but: Today, Muji opened a store in Berlin. And since I’ve been a total sucker for Muji for years, this makes me very happy indeed. In case you’re not familiar with this Japanese department store, they’re basically the makers of all kinds of things non-branded and […]
How I tried (and failed at) legally buying music in Germany
Please note: What’s about to follow is a rant. It’s also advice to music labels. Short-short version, dear content traders: Make your stuff more easily available.
This is a story of a sucky customer experience. As customers and experts alike will tell you, users like to rock, not to suck.
Buying music online is supposedly easy. Or […]
Creative Commons for German Public TV Could Save Costs, Archives
German public TV and the Some Rights Reserved content licenses by Creative Commons don’t seem to be a natural mix.
Then again, maybe they do.
As NDR, one of Germany’s regional public TV stations, proved by putting some shows under Creative Commons, open licenses and public TV may be a pretty good match indeed. (This goes […]
Presentation: print is dead, at least to the young
The print vs online discussion is as old as the internet, and I can’t even recall how often I’ve heard that print is dead. However, it’s not quite as common to also deliver the necessary data to back up this statement. One person who really has the science pat down and can back up his […]
On Bebo.com, and why it’s important to make invitations opt-in
Web companies of the world, if there is one lesson to learn, it’s this: Be careful when sending out invitation emails.
I just spammed, by complete accident, my whole Gmail address book through Bebo. This is something that may never happen, ever. So how could it?
Given the recent acquisition of the Social Networking Site Bebo.com […]
Well Done: Lonely Planet To Sell Guidebooks By The Chapter
Lonely Planet has always been very good at thinking from their customers’ point of view. You can see that clearly by the structure of their guidebooks, which are always built around your needs as a traveler.
Still, the most recent announcement surprised me, in the most positive way: Lonely Planet now sells their guidebooks by […]